Well, I didn’t say it is actually mentioned in the movies, just that I remember it was mentioned in the scripts. So today I checked everywhere to find the source of this rumor and found this essay on the development of the Star Wars script:

With his production paintings, Ralph McQuarrie had convinced Lucas to soften the two-hundred-year-old Wookiee’s frightening features and eliminate his clothes, leaving the two chrome bandoliers. 141

Beside the script, Lucas constructed a detailed culture for the Wookiees. They live in giant trees (just like the “Ewoks” in Return of the Jedi) on their homeworld Kashyyyk, and they have their own version of the Force based on their empathy with plant life. Their most sacred custom is the life debt, which Wookiees pledge to those who save their lives. When Chewbacca was saved from Imperial slavetraders by Han Solo, he pledged a life debt to Han, and now he travels with his saviour in order to carry out his sacred obligations. 142 (See also Appendix, p. 54.)

Boba Fett was introduced in the SWHS on purpose, though: he was already written for the TESB’s script. Not sure about Kashyyyk, but IIRC it was already considered as a setting for the original SW or mentioned in Chewie’s background.

Anyway, I think this thread’s going pretty OT even for this site’s name 😄

I don’t disagree at all. As Kershner said, Star Wars is the breakthrough and therefore can’t be outdone.
But ESB takes all of it and pushes it to the next level in a much more mature film. That’s something Star Wars has never gotten again.

I don’t see it that way. I know of the interview you mentioned, but IIRC they were talking mostly about SW’s original success, not necessarily about SW being potentially better than TESB as a movie.
In the end, I think they were able to make TESB stand on its own, in fact I’d say it’s a very different movie than SW, it doesn’t just rely on building on top of the previous movie. They are both good movies, mind you, but in my opinion TESB is better than SW because it has much more depth, much more care for the characters and its world. It is also so well crafted I’d often take a random scene and start analyzing it just to learn how the hell were they able to to make it so good. Few movies are so well made (especially in recent years), it’s just that good 😃

I was wondering why did Ren kill Tekka instead of interrogating him like later with Poe? As much as he knew, Tekka might’ve been the only person to know of the map. What if he didn’t find Poe after killing Tekka?
Also, how did he know that Tekka gave the map to Poe? Did he read Tekka’s mind? Tekka might be old, but doesn’t seem to be weak-minded (except when he goes straight to them to get captured 😄 ). So, did he read Poe’s mind, instead? That would be odd too, because he later has to interrogate him for quite some time before he can get the informations he wants.

Realistically, what’s keeping Disney from releasing the OOT? Costs? Low interest? But I’d argue that, since we know they’re already scanning every negative, even deleted scenes (see Rogue One), they may as well have scanned all of the original trilogy at this point, anyway. And even if they don’t find printing new discs worth the costs, they could release it as a digital download: granted, it’s not the same, but it’s a viable solution that would cost them virtually nothing.
So, I don’t think these are the problems. I think they just don’t want to release it at this point, probably because they want to focus on marketing the new movies.

I agree most people don’t realize that film can look “hd”, though it’s not really their fault, they’re just not aware of it (I wasn’t too until some years ago! 😄 ).
About grain, though, I don’t know anyone who actually dislike it. Maybe they use DNR on movies just because it eases digital compressions and makes special effects blend better with the live-action footage.

It’s very easy for the film critics to analyze why a film is popular or why a film is good, but in the long run, it’s very, very subjective. You get six people in a room, you’re going to get six different opinions about any film and they’re all right. There’s no wrong. […] If you enjoy what you’re seeing, and you get something out of it […] then it’s working for you.http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/11/11/an-interview-with-gary-kurtz?page=4

Do you think you can convince people that ROTS wasn’t awful? Because I’ve heard all the arguments before and I’ve never found a single one convincing in the slightest. I think anyone who puts any of the prequel movies above any of the other movies is just fooling themselves, because they’re putting three cartoons over five actual movies…but that’s just my opinion.

I don’t want to convince anyone of my opinions. ROTS is definitely not a good movie (otherwise we wouldn’t even be talking about it), I just explained what worked for me.
But here’s the problem: generally neither you should think that, since you don’t like something, everyone should agree 100% with you and that you should dismiss the others’ opinions like they are fooling themselves.
Do you think I’m fooling myself? I spoke with the other fans during my time on this forum, and learned about their own points of view, half of them I didn’t even agree with. For example, I disagree with you that TFA has a good story, I think it’s a complete marketing mess. I should think you’re just fooling yourself, right? I didn’t, ever, because I think that, as long as one speaks from his heart, there’s some truth to learn that may also give a better insight of one’s work (in this case that, despite my opinion on TFA’s story, it probably genuinely worked for you and that I should look into it).
It’s not about agreeing or rejecting, it’s about learning from the others.

When we can finally all agree on how much of a failure ROTS was, it will truly be a beautiful day.

Jokes aside, I’m beginning to question whether you’re actually interested in learning about opinions different from yours on these movies, or you think that your opinions are to be considered an absolute truth :\

Isn’t it a little weird how in the first movie, Han says that he’s never heard of the Jedi or the Force, but the Jedi only went extinct twenty years earlier?

He just said he didn’t believe in this stuff. This is also consistent with what he said in TFA.

LUKE
You don’t believe in the Force, do you?

HAN
Kid, I’ve flown from one side of this galaxy to the other. I’ve seen a lot of strange stuff, but I’ve never seen anything to make me believe there’s one all-powerful force controlling everything. There’s no mystical energy field that controls my destiny. It’s all a lot of simple tricks and nonsense.

In any case, I think Lucas originally wanted the Jedi to be extinct for much more years for the original movie, but this later changed with the next two.

To people like me, whom (I think I’m using whom right, I never mastered that) TFA and R1 failed to even moderately entertain, saying ROTS is better isn’t saying very much. Not sure if that’s part of John Doom’s reasoning. TFA and R1 are above the prequels in my ranking, but not by much.

It’s hard to explain my reasons in just a few words. I do think ROTS is a more entertaining movie than R1 and TFA, but not in a “full action packed blockbuster” way, but mostly because it seems to care more about its characters, its plot and subtexts. Despite Lucas’s well-known cold writing, ROTS has some of the most moving scenes of the whole saga. It works to me because, even though not everything was well executed, it was done for a purpose and under one vision: Anakin becames slowly aware of being corrupted, until he loses his very own identity.
In comparison, I think R1 and especially TFA lack proper visions and subtexts: in these movies, it’s all about the scenes, but most of them feel somehow formulaic and disjointed from the others, seem to lack a coherent purpose, which makes them look less interesting to me, emotionless, even boring in some cases. I’d like to tell more about this topic, but I’d need to write a very long wall of text 😄 I would if asked, though.
Of course there are a lot of things I dislike in ROTS as a Star Wars movie, like all those continuity issues and Palpatine used as a comic relief in some scenes, but I do think it is, overall, still a better movie on its own than both R1 and TFA, though not by much. It’s not a masterpiece, in any case 😄 , but it’s the one I keep watching occasionally, while I just can’t watch again TFA (R1 I can’t say, since I just saw it yesterday 😄 ).
One last thing: I’m definitely not a fan of CG, but when comparing the PT to the new Disney movies, I think it’s useless to bring up the CGI issue, because they all used quite a lot of digital effects (despite the marketing saying otherwise) and they both look CG, no matter what. The only difference is that the PT’s CG is older.